Allison Burgess

Allison Burgess (she, her, hers) is the Acting Executive Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in the Division of People Strategy, Equity & Culture. Previously, as Director, Sexual & Gender Diversity Office, Allison has spent more than a decade developing partnerships, resources, and programs focused on 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion and belonging, including the annual U of T Pride Pub, Trans Day of Remembrance, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, among others. She has championed process improvements and educational initiatives that have fostered equity and inclusion across the University, including leadership on washroom accessibility, institutional name change processes for members of the university community, and strategic educational events and speaker series. Allison is a mentor is the Rose Patten Mentorship Learning Program. 

She holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for the Study of Education and the Graduate Collaborative Program in Women and Gender Studies. Her dissertation, titled “It’s Not A Parade, It’s a March!: Subjectivities, Spectatorship, and Contested Spaces of the Toronto Dyke March” argues that the Dyke March is an event which is intentionally meaningful in its claims to particular spaces and subjectivities and contributes to discussions of queer women’s visibility, representation, and queer activism in Canada.